Littlest Pet Shop: High School AU

Chapter 49: Auditions

Tangier held a curious grin on his face as he slipped into the very back seats of the auditorium. He was glad to see that he made it just in time to watch the auditions. Russell was giving one of his introductory/motivational speeches, which made the model roll his eyes. He hated it when Russell acted like he was in charge of everything happening... Well, Russell was sort of in charge of the whole thing, but it was still irritating.

"Thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come and share your talents with us. If I may introduce myself—to those of you who don't know me—I am Russell Ferguson. I am going to be helping all the talent backstage and making sure the show is running along smoothly. Now, you're all here today to audition for the upcoming talent show that we are going to hold in exactly one week. This is why I need to make sure you're all very committed to the show and that you will attend the scheduled rehearsals."

Russell glanced down at his clipboard, making sure he was going over everything that needed to be said before they started. He had everyone sitting on the stage so they could listen to instructions and sort of settle their nerves.

"This will be a very casual audition; You'll all be just fine and there's no need to be afraid to show what you got. Allow me to introduce the judges!" He began, smiling some and walking over to the table where the judges sat.

Tangier sat up in his seat some to have a glance at the judge panel himself; Looked like there were three teachers and the two student judges. His mouth pulled to a slant at that. He could be sitting there right now with the other student judges, but Russell made sure that didn't happen.

"We've got our very own Principal Twombly here with us, as well as the head of the drama department and cheerleader coach. In our student judging panel, we have Shahrukh and Delilah. So, do your best everybody! Before we officially begin I'd like to go over a few quick rules—"

"Hurry up!" Pepper called out, smiling widely.

Tangier couldn't help but snicker at that. Pepper, the self-proclaimed "master of comedy", always jumped at an opportunity to be funny. Especially when it had to do with Russell. At least Tangier could appreciate that aspect of Pepper's humor.

Russell gave his friend a look, then looked down at his clipboard to quickly scan the rules he listed.

"There will be no explicit language, themes, costumes, etc. allowed during rehearsals or the show and please do not interrupt an audition or number, nor eat backstage in the wings. Please do not make too much noise while somebody else is going and be ready backstage three numbers before you have to go on. If there are any issues, concerns, problems, or worries you'd like to address, please come find me. Thank you," he spoke quickly and tucked his pencil away. "First up is Zoe Trent."

Zoe immediately stood up and clasped her hands while everybody else cleared the stage and waited for their turn to audition, and Digby quickly sat in the audience to watch his girlfriend perform her song. He knew she had been working hard on it ever since the idea of the talent show started. He had full faith in her abilities to nail the audition.

Tangier smiled, eager to see what kind of talent the show would contain. The model watched Zoe grab a microphone and take her place on stage. Once the music began, she started performing like a natural. Of course, Tangier thought to himself. She always had to be first and she always had to make a big deal out of it. He couldn't lie and say her singing was bad, because it absolutely wasn't. He just did not like Zoe in general for other reasons.

As the song continued, he had no doubt in his mind that Zoe would pass the auditions. It was a given, really. Who knows? Maybe she was the one that would take home the first place prize.

The next student to audition was a somewhat familiar face to Tangier. It was the strange mime kid named Philippe. He flew in from France just last year and took a liking to Zoe, and for some time, Zoe liked him back. The only problem with their relationship was that Philippe never talked, so it led to some communication issues.

Of course, Philippe chose to do miming for his audition. What a bore, Tangier thought to himself as he rested his head in his hand. He checked his watch, and then the next time he looked up, Philippe was taking a bow. Who was next?

Ah, Sunil Nevla and Minka Mark. It was an interesting duo, but they worked well together nonetheless. Usually Sunil's magic tricks ran dry or malfunctioned in some way, but it seemed that everything was going pretty well for them. Tangier hated that he was on the edge of his seat for a bit of the audition, but he was curious as to where the photograph had mysteriously vanished to.

After leaning back in his seat, Tangier was able to get a glance backstage in the wings, and he grinned widely. He could spot Russell keeping his eyes on Minka, and Minka only. He let out a sigh and shook his head. What an absolute dork. I can't believe he hasn't confessed to her yet. I might do it for him if this nonsense continues. It's not like Tangier wanted Russell and Minka to be happy together or whatever, but he thought it'd hilarious if he was the one to tell Minka about Russell's ridiculous little crush.

Once Sunil's audition with Minka was over, Vinnie was seen high-fiving the two as he passed by them, and then took his place on stage. Great. The dancer, Tangier rolled his eyes. He wanted to look away since he knew what Vinnie's dancing was like, but maybe he could at least watch the audition for the laughs. Once the music started, Tangier was surprised to see that not only was Vinnie tap dancing, but he was singing along as well.

Vinnie's audition was probably the most surprising, mostly because the expectations for it were very low. It seemed Vinnie managed to only trip and fall on his face twice throughout the whole number, but other than that, it was actually not too bad. Tangier drummed his fingers on his armrest as he kept thinking how shocking that such a dumb, brain-dead guy was actually a good tap dancer and singer. Damn it.

Next up on the stage were Cashmere and Velvet Biskit. Tangier sat up in his seat some, seeing his only two true friends. He hoped that if he were a judge, he'd make sure they'd make it through the auditions and maybe be in the top three at least. Those two, as Tangier knew, prepared their own song for the audition. It's not like the twins were bad, but they definitely weren't on Zoe's level of vocal talent. Either way, it was a solid audition.

When Pepper stepped out on the stage, Tangier groaned. Her kind of humor never really clicked with him—or a lot of people—unless it had to do with teasing Russell in some way. Pepper was pretty good at situational humor... not so much at stand-up. However, she somehow made the judges laugh and clap at her performance. Tangier had to give his head a massage. Are they just letting anybody into this show?

When Penny Ling took the stage, Tangier gripped his armrests. It made him uneasy how someone as scary and tough as her would be so graceful-looking on stage. (The irony was that Penny Ling wasn't really the strong, tough type. She was the cute, sensitive one. However, Tangier's experience with that woman has swayed his viewpoint of her). It was absolutely ridiculous at how strange all of Russell's friends were. It was also irritating that some of them proved that they did have an ounce of talent deep inside of themselves. Perhaps the show would be more interesting than he originally thought.

After watching a few more pointless audition numbers, Tangier decided he'd seen enough. He stood up, straightened out his ascot, and smirked evilly. Now to wait for what comes next. He clasped his hands behind his back and calmly exited the auditorium.